“Luxury is in each detail”

Hey there Santa Babies!!!

We are inching closer to the Big 25 and let me tell ya, I absolutely lurrrvvveeeee this time of year! My Christmas tree is already up (in pinks and gold), and I’m looking forward to the imminent smell of ham, the sounds of calypso, and to the Masquerade dancers with their drums and whips – all features of an Emerald Isle Christmas. Sure, Covid-the-grinch has made sure that Christmas on the ‘Rock’ will be a little different this year but despite her tryna rain on my parade, my Christmas fever is in full effect! 

Just in case you don’t hear from me again for the Season, (because I’ll be too stuffed to think, let alone write), I want to take this opportunity to wish you, my supporters, a Very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous and Covid-free new year! Thank you for joining me on my blogging journey over the last 6 months and I look forward to spilling more tea in the new year. I hope you’ll stick around!

Now, about this post…

As most of you already know, my friend Carandre Fernandez, owner and head photographer @vipmediamontserrat, is responsible for the badass photos here on my blog and also on my Instagram account. At the beginning of this year, our resolutions included a monthly shoot over the course of the year. Our plans were unfortunately hijacked by Lady Corona, and because of lockdown restrictions, we were unable to hit our target… but 6 out of 12 ain’t bad, all things considering.  

My final shoot for the year went down on the 5th of December. We spent our Saturday afternoon capturing stills of my latest make, another Simplicity 8014 – this one in Caramel Predator’s Pride cotton poplin (exclusive to Mood) … because neutrals… remember?  

I confess that this wasn’t my first rodeo with this pattern. I’d made it before and wrote a blog post breaking down the cost to self-produce this dress.  If you haven’t read it, you can check it out here. This time I wanted to up the amp with a fabulous sleeve so I hacked the pattern.

You will not be surprised that pre hack, I blended three different sizes, and made a few fitting adjustments to the pattern. Part of the reason I sew, is to make clothing that fits me better than RTW, so I tend to invest a lot of time in getting a good fit and I ain’t mad about it! This dress is by no means perfect, I know, but it’s a hell of a lot better than off the rack, IMO. 

Lemme spill the tea on this sleeve hack. I wanted a 3-part sleeve: a regular sleeve head, with a gathered mid-tier and a cuff. To achieve this, I first shortened the sleeve from view B of the pattern. To that, I attached the sleeve and cuff from from #M7724. However, I shortened the sleeve of #M7724 quite a bit because I wanted the sleeve to hit just below the elbow, but I forgot to widen the cuff to fit around my forearm (instead of at the wrist as designed). So you guessed it… when I had finished making up, and attaching the sleeves to the dress, I tried it on and the cuff was too small to fasten at the arm.

UGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can I just say, that these were the best sleeves I had EVER set into a garment…so you can imagine I was hella annoyed at my discovery! Suits me fine for not toiling it, I guess. Now, I didn’t have enough fabric to recut the sleeves, no matter how much fabric Tetris I played, but I also didn’t want this project ending up in the f*it bucket, so I put it on a time out for a minute (or two), whilst I tried to figure out a solution.  I put my creativity to the test, and in the end, I decided to add eyelets to both sides of the cuff. The new plan was to lace up the sleeves with ribbon, and tie an obnoxious bow to fasten them and I LOVE IT (am I allowed to say that without sounding pompous)? Sorry…not sorry! Next time, I think I’ll channel my inner Esme Young and tie an even bigger bow!

 Crisis averted! Phewwwwww

What do you think? Do you endorse this hack and save? Drop me a line and let me know. 

But hey, I smell ham baking so I gotta luv ya and leave ya, 

 Until next time … 

Xoxo

Kris